January 17, 2016 marks the thirty-third anniversary of a unique holiday – Sanctity of Human Life Day. This now almost-forgotten holiday, always falling on the third Sunday of January, was originally designated by President Ronald Reagan to coincide with another important day in the history of our nation – January 22nd – the day when the Supreme Court issued the landmark decision Roe v. Wade.

Interesting timing for the Supreme Court – less than a month after the nation had finished its greatest celebration. A celebration reverencing an innocent and helpless infant. An infant who was welcomed and loved although the circumstances were less than perfect. An infant whose greatest worth lay in his potential to someday become a force for happiness, a force for love and a force for the continuation of life itself. It is Christmas and the man for whom it is named taught us that every life is something to treasure, something to honor, and something worthy of our greatest sacrifice. Some might call Christmas the world’s greatest celebration of the sanctity of life.

Less than a month after Christmas came Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade marked the beginning of a new era of self-gratification at the expense of family unity. At the beginning of 2015 there had been an estimated 57,762,169 abortions performed in the world since the Roe v. Wade. By the end of next year the number could well be 60 million. 60 million human lives extinguished. 60 million lives that will never live, never breathe, never laugh, never love. 60 million human lives cut short because they were less than perfect or made someone else’s life a little too difficult.

So this year after the Christmas celebrations have died down, make room for another holiday– January 17th Sancity of Human Life Day. Take time to speak out for life. Take time to teach your children. Take time to ponder. Do what you can to see that another life has the chance to matter.

Related

Tags:

1 Comment

lmerryangel

THis great land can reverse the genocide on unborn babies, BUT we will have to work with Pregnancy Centers who see women after they do the ultrasound and KNOW which women are still abortion-minded. Our charity, Save Unborn Life began to offer hope and financial help to women who said they have to abort because they cannot afford the baby, and since, we have saved over 70 babies. We offer them a sum of $3000 if they will choose life, they can adopt the baby or keep it and we KNOW that amount of money made the difference. We hope many AMericans will join us-go to saveunbornlife.org and help us save many more unborn lives!
Here is the story about our charity by the Guardian:
Merry Christmas, and may God bless us everyone!

THE GUARDIAN 17 Nov. 2015
The price of being pro-life: meet the woman who pays $3,000 to prevent abortions
Laura Merriott has always been anti-abortion. After seeing many women go through with the procedure for financial reasons, she decided to bankroll them.
Save Unborn Life’s founder, Laura Merriott said of funding mothers-to-be: ‘If we got many big donors we might be able to offer them more, and then more [babies] can be saved.’
Save Unborn Life’s founder, Laura Merriott said of funding mothers-to-be: ‘If we got many big donors we might be able to offer them more, and then more [babies] can be saved.’
It was a phonebook that led Flora to Laura Merriott, who she says helped save the lives of her twins.

About a year ago, Flora, 39, found out she was pregnant. The pregnancy was unplanned; her boyfriend had left. And so Flora, who until that moment had been anti-abortion, picked up a phonebook and started looking for a place that could help her.

“The father had left and I had no help. I was trying to find out how I could get an abortion or somebody that could help me pay for an abortion,” she said.

That’s when she found it: Women’s Care Center of Erie County Inc. “I called them thinking that they were a place that helps with abortions. They had me come in for a meeting to talk to them about it. I explained my situation and then I came to find out I wasn’t there for them to help me get an abortion. I was there for them to help save my baby.”

That first meeting was not enough to convince Flora to keep her pregnancy.She did, however, agree to try counseling. That’s when she was introduced to Laura Merriott, president of Save Unborn Life.

Is $3,000 enough to stop an abortion?
Merriott, a retired US air force nurse who had always been pro-life, used to volunteer at the center. After seeing a number of women decide to go through with abortion due to financial reasons, she thought to herself: why don’t we just give them money? And so Save Unborn Life was born.

As of this November, by her count, Merriott has given money to 70 mothers, including Flora. “We have had 73 babies because we have had three sets of twins that were saved,” she said.

How much money is enough to convince an expecting mother not to have abortion? According to Merriott, it’s $3,000. The contract that Merriott has with the expecting mothers stipulates that after the expecting mother carries the baby to term, she will receive the funds. The contract is available in its entirety on Save Unborn Life’s website.

But is it enough?

Before the question is even finished, Merriott answered: “It has been. For just this purpose – for them to get through that difficult decision whether to end the baby’s life or not. For some people, it’s not enough and they say no. They are not going to accept the contract. That’s not going to do it for them and unfortunately they go on and have an abortion.”

Most of the women who visit the center are on Medicaid. The center also provides a number of services that help to minimize the costs of the pregnancy. Merriott sometimes helps mothers with groceries and diapers; she and the center refer them to soup kitchens, and the center also helps women obtain items such as donated cribs and baby clothes.

The cost of caring for a baby is steep, which is why the Women’s Care Center of Erie County also helps women obtain items such as donated clothes.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
The cost of caring for a baby is steep, which is why the Women’s Care Center of Erie County also helps women obtain items such as donated clothes. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images
Brenda Newport, who runs the pro-life center in Erie where Flora went looking for an abortion, said the offer of $3,000 is helpful if the money is “the overall motivating factor”.

Advertisement

“[I]f it’s just some material help and if it’s just ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do for an apartment, I’m going to need a deposit for my first month’s rent,’ well, a few thousand dollars will really help,” Newport told the National Review last year.

When the Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on sexual and reproductive health research, interviewed more than 1,000 women in 2004 about why they decided to have an abortion, 73% of them said they could not afford a child. A third of the women, who were asked to provide reasons for the decision, said they were students or planning on studies; about 23% couldn’t afford basic needs; 28% said that they couldn’t afford a baby and childcare; a little over one in five (22%) were unemployed; and 21% could not afford to leave their jobs to take care of a baby.

There is no question that $3,000 is a short-term solution. To raise a child born in 2013 will cost $245,340 over the first 18 years of his or her life, according to the US Department of Agriculture. This includes food, housing, childcare and education.

When reached for comment, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood said: “Planned Parenthood believes strongly that a woman should have access to accurate information about all her options – including safe and legal abortion – presented without stigma or judgment. That information should support her, help her make a decision for herself, and enable her to take care of her health and wellbeing. It should not be provided with the intent of coercing, shaming or judging her.”

‘I am going to do the best I can to raise them’
Was it the money that convinced Flora a year ago?

Advertisement

“It’s just the things they said, along with the money – it helped,” she said. “It doesn’t help nearly enough. It’s really expensive to raise babies. But as far as them talking to me and counseling and helping me with things I was going through and just being there for me along the way and pushing my spirits up – all that helps.”

The money she received from Merriott helped take the pressure off during these early months. Her twins, one boy and one girl, are now three months old.

Before the twins were born, Flora was already a mom of four. Her oldest two sons have moved out; sometimes their girlfriends stop by to give Flora a hand with the twins. Her mother also helps. They are tight-knit family, yet things are still hard.

Before she got pregnant, Flora was on disability benefits, taking care of her two youngest children, five and nine years old. She hoped to move out of Erie. Now with the twins at home, that probably will not happen.

“Most of the time I am here, alone, and it’s a struggle,” she said. “They both cry at the same time. They wake up at the same time. They want to be fed and changed at the same time. It’s very difficult. They have their days and nights mixed up so they are up all night.”

But more than three months after giving birth, Flora said she does not regret signing Merriott’s contract. Growing up, she said, she used to tell people that she could “never kill a baby”.

“I don’t care how it happened, no matter if I was raped or whatever, it doesn’t matter, because it’s mine and I would never do that. Until I got put in my own situation and then, you know, I sat and thought: ‘Wow. Now, I see now why people did the things that they did and why they did get rid of their babies in the situation they were in.’ Because I ended up being one of those people, and I have thought about it and wanted to and was so close to going through with it,” she said.

“But thank God I didn’t because I don’t know what I would do without them. I love them to death. They are so beautiful. They are darling … And even though the father left us – he just left us high and dry with no call and no nothing – I am going to do the best I can to raise them.”

I don’t care how it happened, no matter if I was raped or whatever … because it’s mine and I would never do that
Flora
‘More can be saved’

Her faith has also played a role in setting up Save Unborn Life. “I feel as many as I can save before I meet my maker, that’s what I want to do,” she told the Guardian.

Her inspiration for the organization? Schindler’s List. The movie focuses on Oskar Schindler, who employed Polish Jews at his factories in order to save them from being sent to concentration camps and used his fortune to bribe Nazi officials to save their lives.

A still from the film Schindler’s List
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Merriott cites the film Schindler’s List as her inspiration for the organization Save Unborn Life. Photograph: Snap/Rex Features
“I’ve watched it many times, and for him to have offered money for the workers – for the Jews that were going to be killed in the concentration camp – money is what it took. And he saved 1,100 of them,” says Merriott.

If pro-life Americans really wanted to save unborn children, they could easily do so, she added: “And with small amounts of money – in my mind, $3,000 is a small amount of money. If we got many, many big donors we might be able to offer them more, too, and then more can be saved.”

Until now, most of the money has come from her family, some organizations and a number of small donors, who send monthly contributions.

“I used much of my retirement money,” said Merriott. “What we are using is excess money that would be inherited. [Our kids] are very happy that we are doing what we are doing.”